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Competition
Eliminator 4/24/09
The 54th season of the
Humboldt-Del Norte Timing
Association kicked off Sunday
the 24th, and as several drivers
were reaching personal best
elapsed times, you had to keep
in mind the strong headwinds.
The winds never let up all day,
and the competition only got
more interesting.
In a
growing field of dragsters, Jake
Morris' first rail job - an '06
Eurya with a "starter
motor" unblown 454 - ran
second-lowest passes of the day
for cars, 8.95 being his best.
He first drove it Test N Tune
weekend (April 4th & 5th)) with
a pair of 9.19s, ran 9-flat at
Kool April Drags on the 18th.
Rick
Ellsworth, Jr's dragster was top
qualifier with a Session 2 pass
of 8.33 at 156 mph. For several,
their season opener happened
elsewhere and earlier. Slant 6
Dodge freak Andrew Howard took
second place in his class at
Mopars at the Strip in
Las Vegas, weekend of
March 21st with his rebuilt
gasser-style '62 Valiant.
Kool
April Drags in Redding got
things rolling, in part, for:
-- Kyle
Skillings, who took 3rd in
West Coast Top Sportsman
with a personal record 7.66
through 92 degree heat in his
stretched '94 Berretta.
-- Bill
Wood, who took his '69 Camaro to
the Electronics final past
midnight with a winning pass of
9.11 @ 148 mph, then took 3rd
the next day.
-- Ray
Rapp, who took 3rd that Sunday,
in Non-Electronics, aided by
consecutive 10.19s, one of them
with a .001
reaction time.
Rapp left last season as Samoa
Dragstrip's first driver to take
championships in both Super Pro
and Pro, and began his hometrack
season with crew chief Ron
Macklin solidly. He lept
the '72 Vega off the line with
the best
reaction times - an .003
in Session 1, and .002 in the
Semi Finals, running extremely
close to his dial-ins, avoiding
breakouts in both classes (a
10.129 in Pro quarter
finals against Sam Ivey's
Mustang, 10.132 in Super
Pro eliminations).It led his
Vega to the Super Pro final
against the top qualifier, where
Ellsworth ran an 8.34, but
red-lit at the starting line.
Rapp had the first green light,
running 10.13 on a 10.14
dial-in. Rapp faced Ana Toledo
for a 1st place win in the Pro
final. Noteworth is Toledo
starting her second year in Pro
noticeably faster in her '69
Mustang.
Ron Gulbransen, after years of
heading the Sportsman pack with
his '68 Mustang California
Special has entered Pro running
personal best e.t.'s. In Test n
Tune he ran a 12.54, and started
the season opener
time trials with an 11.98
pass.
The
Sportsman final featured veteran
Glen Terry and his Slant
6-powered '65
Dodge Dart take on rookie
Max Jeffers' '03 Lance
Evolution. Jeffers, more
accustomed to the heads up
Budweiser Racing Street Legals
Series, ran a better e.t. of
14.96 to the Killer Bees
Racing's 15.86, but Terry had a
much better reaction time,
aiding him to 1st place. Still,
Jeffers had fun returning to the
tower as runner-up.
Now a licensed NHRA
Pro Stock Motorcycle
pilot,
James Surber's Harley Davidson
drag bike sliced the
quickest run amongst bikers,
8.37 in time trials. Wayne Cox
had second-quickest et. in
trials, 8.77 with his '97
Kawasaki
drag bike, John Widdman
helping wrench the bike to the
final, Cox racing Thomas Wilhem.
Wilhelm, his second year on
snowmobiles, brokeout with a
10-flat run on a 12.98 dial-in,
as Cox ran 8.76 on his 8.75
dial-in at 129 mph.
Each year we see at least one
Junior Dragster pilot
graduate to faster brackets.
Last year graduate Robbie
Waddell even went from Sportsman
to Pro. Mike Pettit, Jr.
returned this year in Sportsman
Motorcycles, racing
sister Kara - her 2nd year in
motorcycles, now a high school
grad and recent mother - on
Skidoo snowmobiles. He sled into
the semi's against Wilhelm, who
would advance.
Speaking of Junior Dragsters,
the Pro
Pacific Junior Dragster Series
opened with a big field of young
pilots. 2nd-year driver Mikey
Pires, Jr. took the Consolation
win over Melissa Surber, before
Kevin Will took an 8.78 win in
the eighth-mile over Austin
Petersen's 9.32. Petersen's arm
took the toll of a knarly bike
accident days prior, though the
arm sling didn't keep him from
the cockpit.
Needless to say, Season 54
started off excitingly,
continuing on May 10th with the
Bob Olmstead Memorial Race.
Don't forget- the night prior to
points races are full of action
with the Budweiser Racing Street
Legal Series at 5:30pm, free
entry and admission (but if you
still want to sneak
friends in the trunk, well
that's just weird...). The
previous night saw about 150
entries, several showing up with
the backseats already out. It's
getting to be a serious venue
for keeping racing on the strip
and off the street.
So:
further into Season 54, at the
historic Samoa Dragstrip. See ya
at the Bob Olmstead Memorial
Race, May 10.
--
Tim O'Brien
Track
Announcer
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Ray Rapp won both Super Pro and
Pro |